I’ve made homemade pizza sauce before but I wanted one that was even thicker and richer because I had some big plans to dip things in it (and by “things” I mean pizzadillas). Dipping sauces have to be really thick or else they won’t hang on to whatever is being dunked in them. But I also love a good, thick pizza sauce on my pizzas. A thick pizza sauce gives all the flavor without making the dough soggy. No watery pizza sauce here, folks!
Ingredients for Pizza Sauce:
To make this super thick and rich pizza sauce, you’ll need the following ingredients:
- Olive Oil & Garlic: Garlic sautéed in olive oil provides a deep base flavor for this pizza sauce.
- Crushed Tomatoes: Canned crushed tomatoes provide the bulk of the volume of the sauce. The crushed texture is smooth enough that you won’t have chunks in your sauce, but still has enough texture to prevent the sauce from being too thin.
- Tomato Paste: A little dollop of tomato paste helps thicken the sauce even further and provides a super concentrated tomato flavor to the sauce. No weak sauce here!
- Seasonings: We keep the seasoning pretty simple with just a little basil, oregano, salt, pepper, and a little sugar to help balance the acidity of the tomatoes. Oh! And a pinch of crushed red pepper too, for a little kick. ;)
How Much Sauce Does This Make?
This homemade pizza sauce recipe makes three cups, which is about 3 large pizzas or 12 dipping portions (or like, six pizza sandwiches). The sauce freezes great so go ahead and freeze some of it and then you won’t have to make a batch the next time you want a pizza!
How to Use Homemade Pizza Sauce
Pizza sauce is great for a lot more than just pizzas! This super thick and rich pizza sauce recipe is my new go-to red sauce. Use it for meatball subs, eggplant or chicken parmesan, or just for dipping breadsticks. It’s a quick, easy, all-purpose red sauce for smothering and dipping. Here are a few other great ways to use your Homemade Pizza Sauce:
How to Store Leftover Pizza Sauce
If this pizza sauce recipe is more sauce than you need for one meal, go ahead and freeze the remainder of the sauce. I suggest using a quart-sized freezer bag. To reheat, just tear away the freezer bag and empty the frozen pizza sauce into a small sauce pot. Reheat over low, stirring often, until it is heated through.
Homemade Pizza Sauce
Servings 3 cupsIngredients
- 2 Tbsp olive oil ($0.26)
- 1 clove garlic, minced ($0.08)
- 1 28oz. can crushed tomatoes ($1.47)
- 1 6oz. can tomato paste ($0.59)
- 1/2 Tbsp sugar ($0.05)
- 3/4 tsp salt ($0.05)
- 1 tsp dried basil ($0.10)
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano ($0.05)
- Freshly cracked black pepper ($0.05)
- 1 pinch crushed red pepper (optional) ($0.02)
Instructions
- Add the olive oil and garlic to a sauce pot and cook over medium heat for 1-2 minutes, or just until the garlic is soft and fragrant.
- Add the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar, salt, basil, oregano, some freshly cracked pepper (10-15 cranks of a pepper mill), and a pinch of red pepper flakes. Stir to combine.
- Cover the pot, allow the pot to come to a simmer, then reduce the heat to low, and let simmer for 15 minutes minimum, or up to 30 minutes (I often let it simmer as I prepare my pizza dough).
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Notes
Nutrition
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How to Make Homemade Pizza Sauce – Step By Step Photos
Sauté one clove of minced garlic (or two if you like things garlicky!) in 2 Tbsp olive oil over medium heat for one to two minutes, or until the garlic is soft and fragrant.
Add one 28oz. can crushed tomatoes, one 6oz. can tomato paste, 1/2 Tbsp sugar, 3/4 tsp salt, 1 tsp dried basil, 1/2 tsp dried oregano, some freshly cracked pepper, and a pinch of red pepper flakes to the sauce pot.
Stir the ingredients together, place a lid on top, then allow it to come up to a simmer. Once simmering, turn the heat down to low and let it simmer for 15 minutes minimum (I sometimes let it simmer longer while I’m preparing the pizza dough and the flavor just gets sweeter and deeper).
OMG SO YUMMY
I just used this tonight on my first totally homemade pizza and it was FABULOUS! I didn’t have crushed tomatoes so I used my immersion blender on 2 – 14 oz. cans of Italian Petite Diced tomatoes. No fresh garlic but used already chopped (in a jar) that I keep in the fridge. I’m sure fresh would have made it even more flavorful. I love that I had sauce left to freeze for future pizzas. I could totally have just tossed this on some pasta and called it a great meal. Thank you for a great recipe.
This pizza sauce was delicious and easy! I only had 3 tbs tomato paste so I cooked it for 1 minute in the oil to get extra flavor. I also added extra oregano and garlic! This will be my go to pizza sauce from now on.
Simple, easy, typical pizza sauce. This definitely sets a baseline standard for pizza sauce
great sauce…i added one bay leaf to add some extra flavour.
Try adding a pinch of baking soda if you think the sauce is too acidic. I think you will like the result.
Fry the tomato paste a little bit before adding in the liquid. A couple of minutes with the oil and it turns a bit thicker/redder. It’ll start to stick to the pan and you can scrape it. If you want to go full on, really sear it and then deglaze with wine before dropping in the rest of the ingredients. The real benefit is that the tomato flavor really ‘blooms’ and you’ll get a sweeter, richer tomato sauce.
Would this work as a pasta sauce as well? I hate chunky pasta sauces.
Yep! It’s pretty thick, but I’d eat it on pasta. :)
Yes, it’s a perfect sauce for pasta. You could also put a little pesto on top when you plate it.
Works AMAZING as pasta sauce
Excellent recipe! And very easy to put together with things most of us readily have on hand. I froze leftovers on one-pizza-sized containers for later, but will try it on pasta as one commenter suggested. Thank you for this!
A delicious recipe for homemade pizzas and any leftover sauce is great for mixing with some fresh pasta. Store it in the fridge for a few days and my daughter loves it!
Made this pizza sauce and it turned out phonominal. I’ll skip the salt though. But other than that easy peezy yumminessi’m.
This sauce was delicious!!!
This sauce is so good! I used freshly blanched and blended tomatoes instead of a can of crushed tomatoes, and I also took the advice of a previous commenter to add a bit of butter for less acidity. Perfection!
From where can I get crushed tomatoes can
This pizza sauce came out amazing. I used diced tomatoes that had garlic in them. Very tasty! Let it simmer a good half hour to concentrate all the flavors.
Even with the added sugar the taste was a bit too acidic for me, but that was easily fixed with a tablespoon of butter to mellow things out. I also wound up hitting it with an immersion blender, since the brand of crushed tomatoes I used was a bit too chunky for a proper, smooth pizza sauce. Tasted great!
Wow just started baking bread and pizza at home in lockdown and now after.
Me n the kids found a fantastic pizza dough recipie then I googled sauce saw yours .
Just perfect! Thankyou!
Can you share the pizza dough recipe please?
This sauce was quick and turned out great! Flavorful and thick- it was perfect for my homemade pizza!